Hydrogen-helium flashes on accreting neutron stars as a possible origin of gamma-ray bursts

Details Hydrogen-helium flashes on accreting neutron stars as a possible origin of gamma-ray bursts Hydrogen-helium flashes on accreting neutron stars as a possible origin of gamma-ray bursts

Jul 1982

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1982a%26a...111..242h&link_type=abstract

Astronomy and Astrophysics, vol. 111, no. 2, July 1982, p. 242-251.

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

53

Gamma Ray Bursts, Interstellar Matter, Neutron Stars, Stellar Mass Accretion, Stellar Models, Thermonuclear Reactions, Helium Hydrogen Atmospheres, Statistical Analysis, Stellar Envelopes, Stellar Temperature

Scientific paper

Accretion of interstellar matter on a galactic disc population of old neutron stars can lead to thermonuclear runaway offering a very plausible explanation for the phenomenon of gamma-ray bursts. We have studied numerically the possibility of having hydrogen and helium flashes in system with low accretion rates Mdot < 10-12 Msun yr-1. We find instabilities when the accretion rate exceeds 3 10-13 Msun (in the absence of magnetic channeling of the accretion). Each burst is then triggered by electron capture on protons, when the accreted envelope reaches a mass of 3 1023 g. The resulting hydrogen flash will lead to helium detonation after a short heating time of several minutes. Our conclusions are:
a) Only slowly moving neutron stars (3 km s-1 with respect to the interstellar medium) can give a burst.
b) The model is compatible with the data if the old neutron star density is ∼10-2 PC-3 and their velocity dispersion is ∼50km s-1, somewhat lower then that of radio pulsars.
c) The amount of fuel available for the detonation has a standard value of ∼10+23 g, but can also depend on the neutron star's previous history. Exceptionally intense events could, for instance, be explained by a cold neutron star entering a favorable environment of low relative velocity.
d) Persistent X-ray emission after the bursts and a gradual increase above the X-ray back ground starting a few minutes before the burst should be a signature of the mechanism proposed.

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